Chapter Nine #2
I followed. “And by capping our overall customer base, we can scale that white glove service and trailer-made product suite to the biggest of clients without missing a beat, or a single transaction instance, in over ten years. We’re committed to our model and haven’t just seen outstanding success, but delighted accountants, traders, and CFOs. ”
It was stupid. So idiotic. A tactic out of a Saturday morning cartoon show about salespeople superheroes.
Anyone with half a brain would see through it.
But it was fun. That’s why Alec and I worked so well together.
We had fun playing and building off of one another.
Meeting our goal was almost second. That we were so good at it felt like a bonus.
She continued to ignore us. Alec chewed his lip, then flicked an eyebrow at me.
“Oh, hush now, Mason. We shouldn’t annoy the lady with our ramblings. I’m sure she’s heard enough at the presentations all day.”
Again, stupid and cartoonish. Alec was well out of her personal space, but spoke his last line straight in her direction. She turned around with the most awkward smile, and a “Huh? Oh. Uh-ha,” before quickly returning to her phone.
“Sorry, miss,” Alec said as soon as he saw her face.
“No worries, I wasn’t paying attention. You’re good.” She spoke commandingly, strange after the awkward attempt at politeness.
It was the in Alec was looking for. “Oh, wait, aren’t you Rebekah Shenandoah, the new Vice President of Global Technology at Compact Communications?”
She turned around slowly, her smile plastic. “Yes.”
“I heard a rumor you were going to be here. I’m Senior Sales Representative Alec Whitaker, and this is my Jr. Rep.
Mason Blackwood. We’re with FinCrest Financial Solutions.
This has to be fate. We’ve been dying to get a chance to speak with you.
And it looks like we have just enough time to give you an elevator pitch.
” He laughed in a perfect, nonthreatening, likable way.
Her posture slouched, and her eyes rolled. “FinCrest? I’ve already told you people we’re not interested.” She gave Alec and me a look up and down. “You Sales Reps don’t all talk to each other? Not a great look.”
Alec didn’t miss a beat, letting her attitude and response slide off his back. “Or we just needed to call in the big guns. An account like CompComm is not something we take lightly.”
She raised an eyebrow but fought a smile. “You two are the big guns?”
Alec smiled like a supernova. “Give us the ninety second ride up to our rooms to show you we are. And why FinCrest is the best solution to bring your organization into this century.”
She smirked and eyed us one more time. “I’m heading down, not up. Got a flight to catch.”
Divine intervention, or a Hollywood producer, couldn’t have timed it better. The down arrow lighted as she spoke, and the doors opened behind her. We watched in stunned silence as she boarded and turned around to press the button.
As they closed, she said, “Not a good look at all, FinCrest,” still smirking.
I’d be afraid of blowing such a huge and rare opportunity with another boss. Alec caught my eye before we fell into each other, laughing so hard we almost hit the floor.
“Are you fucking kidding?” he said with tears in his eyes. “She’s amazing! Holy fuck! This’ll be the hardest, but biggest win ever!”
I gripped his shoulder to steady myself, my fingertips meeting the mass of tensed muscle under his casual button-down. “You think we’ll get another shot after that? She just ruined our whole lives!” I said, laughing so hard my stomach hurt. “What do they say? She read us for filth.”
“Who says that? What does it even mean?” His face was so red it was comical.
“I don’t really know, but I think it means we’re fucked.”
Alec regained his balance. “But we’re not, Blackwood.
Trust me.” He approached the elevator, the laughter in his voice dying as the cogs in his head whirred.
“She knows she needs a change. That change will come. It’s a matter of time.
She wouldn’t have been that way if she thought our product was shit—”
“What way?”
“Snarky. If there was no chance at all, she’d have taken our card and told us she’d reach out when she was back in office.
The brush off was a memory, a moment neither of us will forget.
And did you see her face when the door closed?
That little smile. She won, and she likes to win.
It’s a matter of convincing her, no, showing her that FinCrest is how she wins.
We’ve just got to find out what and who she really wants to win against. Maybe it’s her CFO?
Or maybe it’s something we can’t see yet.
Either way, we figure that out, and we win. ”
I knew how good he was, but his depth of knowledge still surprised me—both in understanding people and how to land our products.
“Sometimes I forget how smart you are, Alec. Holy shit.”
He pressed the up arrow. “Not smart. Just good at reading people. And old enough to know the patterns. We either need to play a 4D chess game with her, or she’s already tried some change and got shot down. We can work with both. It’s just up to us to figure out which one.”
“You’re the sensei here. I’ll follow your lead.”
He smiled, and my heart fluttered. Even without the alcohol in my blood, after letting Alec fuck me, I was putty in his hands. Part of me hated it, but most of me wanted him to take me upstairs and reenact my deflowering. Several times.